I Am Jazz

I Am Jazz premiered in 2015, introducing a broader audience to trans teenager and already influential YouTuber Jazz Jennings. At a moment when TV was attempting to capture trans experiences across many types of programs, from Becoming Us to Transparent to I Am Cait, the show chronicled the lives of Jazz and her family members as they navigated their relationships with one another, her high school career, and the highs and lows of adolescence in a South Florida community. The first season distinguished itself by offering a sensitively constructed portrait of a teenager coming into her own. Praised for telling Jazz’s story in a straightforward, compassionate manner, I Am Jazz, which ended its seventh season in February and followed Jazz, now 21, preparing to leave home for Harvard, has captured the adolescent trans experience in unprecedented depth. Trans visibility and representation in media have made wide leaps in the near-decade since Jazz showed up on TV—thanks in part to her openness and willingness to share her life. —Mahita Gajanan

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